The processing of silver halide photographic materials include a washing step, and the reduction of the amount of water to be used in the washing step has recently been proposed for the prevention of environmental pollution, the economization of water and the reduction of manufacturing costs. For instance, in "Water Flow Rates in Immersion Washing of Motion Picture Film", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, Vol. 64, pp. 248-253 (May 1955), S. R. Goldwasser proposed a method for reducing the amount of water to be used in the photographic washing step by the use of multi-stage washing tanks of a counter-current system. This method has been applied to various kinds of automatic developing machines, as being effective for the economization of water.
On the other hand, other means have been known, different from the above method, where a stabilization solution containing various kinds of additives is used instead of only water with no additives in the washing step so as to reduce the amount of the processing solution to be used in the step. (Refer to Japanese Patent Application (OPI) Nos. 8542/82, 14834/83, 132146/82, 18631/83 and 184345/84.) (The term "OPI" as used herein means a "published unexamined Japanese patent application".) However, all of the above-mentioned methods have defects in that the thermal discoloration of cyan dyes becomes remarkable when the amount of the processing solution to be used in the washing step is reduced.
Under the circumstances, the object of the present invention is to provide an economical method for processing a silver halide color photographic material which may sufficiently inhibit the thermal discoloration of cyan dyes and which may remarkably reduce the amount of water to be used in the processing.
The present inventors have found that the above-described problems in the prior art may be solved by specifically selecting special cyan couplers which are 1-naphthol-type couplers having a mono-substituted amino group in the 5-position and having higher color image-fastness and color-reproductivity than conventional cyan couplers and/or 1-naphthol-type couplers having an acylamino group in the 2-position and having a higher color image density, incorporating the selected cyan coupler in a color photographic material and processing the material under such condition that the material is washed with water, after being subjected to fixation or bleaching-fixation, while the amount of replenisher of the washing solution is specifically controlled.